Pekka

	Metal Genre	Nb. Rated	Avg. rating
1	Alternative Metal	25	3.76
2	NWoBHM	19	3.82
3	Traditional heavy metal	14	3.61
4	Thrash Metal	10	3.55
5	Proto-Metal	9	4.06
6	Glam Metal	9	3.28
7	Progressive Metal	8	3.31
8	Death Metal	5	3.60
9	Hard Rock	2	3.50
10	Sludge/Post-metal	2	4.50
11	Power Metal	1	4.00
12	Gothic Metal	1	5.00
13	Grindcore	1	3.00

Latest Albums Reviews

NOWEN Where Hell Begins

EP · 2005 · Thrash Metal

Where Hell Begins is the debut EP of the Finnish death/thrash band Nowen, at the time of these recording sessions functioning as a duo, but since grown into a full line-up. The main man of the group was an acquaintance of mine from a couple of metal related discussion forums, so obviously I had to buy his record to support the good work.

Brutal, hard riffing assault is the name of the game here, and the tightly executed riffs indeed manage to carry most of the songs to the finish line, aided by the extremely effective drum work of Ville Vehviläinen, the thrash beat sometimes slipping into a blast beat and more complex death metal patterns, and always rich in fills.

The furious opener Pathetic Existense and the almost epic multi-part five minuter Breaking Point are both pretty great, and after Illusions lowers the standard a bit, the title track launches into another great riffing and drumming fest. With Pain is almost a weird one in this bunch as it actually contains some rather nice guitar melodies, of course framed by some more blast beating madness. It also has the only clean guitar parts of the EP, if I remember right the sound reference used in the studio was mentioned to be Beneath the Remains.

The two main problems of this recording are the sound that could benefit from some extra bottom and the rather bland growls of mastermind Mikko Lappalainen. I believe at least the first problem is solved on the two full lengths, perhaps I should check them out as well.

If you can find this somewhere, give it a listen!

4 months ago
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Report #259317

METALLICA Beyond Magnetic

EP · 2011 · Thrash Metal

"Leftovers... I hate leftovers." -James Hetfield (backed with an appropriate wife/cooking joke)

Well that's just what these songs are, technically at least. Fourteen songs were recorded for Death Magnetic, and since the first ten were released in 2008, many people have been wondering whether the rest would ever see the light of day. But here they finally are, after being premiered in the unspeakably cool 30th anniversary shows. Shine, Hellenbach, Holy Revolver, they're all here. Titles you might remember if you followed the MissionMetallica website during the DM sessions.

Coming from the same sessions the style and sound is obviously very much the same as the original album, with the exception that these are unfinished rough mixes. Which doesn't make much of a difference to be fair, as the DM mixes were already very rough indeed. What we have is a bunch of songs that quality wise could replace pretty much anything on DM, but they were in the previously quoted man's words "maybe too long, too something" to be included. They just didn't fit.

Bad songs they aren't. Aside from a redundant intro here and a messy solo there the tracks are very good, and as the EP goes on, they keep getting better from the rather Fuelish Hate Train to the closing Rebel of Babylon, which features some absolutely brilliant riffage, wild tempo changes and some deliciously twisted guitar harmonies. Better late than never, this particular track would've shone brightly on the original album as well. Hell and Back is a treat too; my favourite snippet from the MM website was a dirty little bit which went something like "when the sun goes hellbound, and the blahblah resurrects the night..." and my disappointment was a big one when it was nowhere to be heard on DM. But here it is.

A worthy addition to the Metallica saga. If you need something to cure the Lulu headache, go grab this one.

4 months ago
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Report #258003

W.A.S.P. Babylon

Album · 2009 · Traditional heavy metal

To say that I had big expectations for W.A.S.P.'s fourteenth album is, well, a lie. It happened so that I Wanna Be Somebody was the only song of theirs that I was familiar with until my friend told me to give Babylon a try on the evening before they were playing a metal festival in Helsinki that I was anyway going to. I listened to a couple of tracks and was positively surprised, but that surprise paled in comparison with the shock that was caused by the fact that I enjoyed immensely the brilliant feel-good rock show that the band put on the next day.

They only played one track from this album, Babylon's Burning, but in retrospect I wouldn't complain if they'd played several more. This album contains several tracks that stand just as tall as some of their earlier classics, that I've gotten myself familiar with since that sunny afternoon in the summer of 2010. Crazy is a great heavy metal speedster and the half-title track is another masterpiece, and the solid album includes many other good points as well, like Thunder Red with an extremely tasty pair of guitar solos, and the power balladish Godless Run, again with some bold soloing by Doug Blair.

Even the Deep Purple cover Burn makes sense and fits well into the pack, and not just by its title, but the same can't necessarily be said for Promised Land by Chuck Berry. Godless Run would've made a good closer, but hell, despite not making that much sense Promised Land is a pretty damn fun track to close the album with.

My third big surprise regarding this W.A.S.P. matter is the voice of Mr. Blackie Lawless. It's still smokin' hot, one of the finest and most powerful rock voices out there. All in all this album has been an extremely positive experience, guess I've got to find out what happened between it and The Last Command.

1 year ago
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Report #235174

BLACK SABBATH Vol 4

Album · 1972 · Proto-Metal

Even though the band thanked the "great COKE-cola company of Los Angeles" in the album's sleeve notes, it's been said by one or more band members that around the making of Vol 4 the booze and drugs stopped being fun and inner turmoil was starting to rise.

I noted in my review of Master of Reality, that despite the versatility of the material, the album manages to convey a sense of focus. That's not the case with this album, even though the majority of songs are of the familiar kind. The reason for this is mostly in the song Changes, which with its piano and mellotron is a big departure from their previous ballads that shared the dark somber mood of the heavier numbers. Of course it's not a happy song, though the opening lines "I feel unhappy / I feel so sad" may not be the most original depiction of sorrow.

But as mentioned, apart from a useless noise bit called FX and another beautiful instrumental Laguna Sunrise, most of the album is dedicated again to the heavier pounding. Tomorrow's Dream, Supernaut and Snowblind are true classics, and Cornucopia has some of Sabbath's heaviest riffs and some tricky rhythms, but the lighter rocker St. Vitus Dance might be early Sab at their most expendable. Opening number Wheels of Confusion on the other hand is an underrated piece of work with a great instrumental section and one extraordinarily powerful riff towards the end just before Ozzy comes back to the mic.

The closer Under the Sun would benefit from better production, as the slow opening riffs are tailor made for good thundering assault, but the sound of the album is a slight step back from the previous production, guitars ringing a bit too hollow to let the heavy riffs shine like they should. Hearing the studio version of Cornucopia for the first time was a great disappointment, as I'd heard the song first as the massive live rendition found on Live at Last/Past Lives. Just like St. Vitus Dance, Under the Sun also has its share of weak riffs, but is somewhat redeemed by a great, long outro also serving as a platform for multi-tracked soloing.

A let down after two masterpieces, but nevertheless an excellent album with many classic moments.

1 year ago
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Report #233180

BLACK SABBATH Master of Reality

Album · 1971 · Proto-Metal

Most bands entering their second recording year are usually still a bit wet behind the ears, but Black Sabbath's first year saw them release two of the most legendary rock albums ever made. And it was only just the beginning. The hit-and-miss debut and the all-brilliant Paranoid have a worthy successor in Master of Reality.

Lasting only about 35 minutes, this album is at the same time very versatile and very focused. Usually when I think about the album I see it as a massive onslaught of heavy riff mastery, but when I take a second thought I remember the surprisingly lightly rocking After Forever with its equally surprising lyrics about a loving God, the two acoustic instrumentals preceding some of the heaviest tracks of the album, Embryo and Orchid, and the planetcaravanish ballad Solitude. That's four of the eight tracks on the album that deviate from my first and foremost picture of this album's nature. I don't know why exactly, but it happens every time still after years of listening.

The somewhat weird and twisted Embryo leads to a classic riff parade called Children of the Grave, which among other things shows that some extra percussion can add a great deal with little effort. Orchid is Tony Iommi at his most beautiful, whereas the next track, Lord of This World is as heavy as anything on any Sabbath album. As are the yay-for-drugs anthem Sweet Leaf and the album closing, thundering Into the Void. Great riff after great riff after an even better riff, all the time.

The band is on fire, the tracks are killer, classic Sabbath worth hearing. A lot of times.

1 year ago
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Report #231046

Latest Forum Topic Posts

Posted 6 days ago in Would my own project be eligible for entry?
Ever considered using Bandcamp to distribute your music? It's free and it's good.
Posted 18 days ago in Why is Clockwork Angels listed as Non-Metal?
[QUOTE=Colt] [QUOTE=Triceratopsoil] Probably because it hasn't been released yet, and this way we don't have to worry about people prematurely rating it[/QUOTE]This[/QUOTE] Yes. Certain popular bands attract certain over-enthusiastic fanboys who go and rate the album (usually five stars, obviously) before anybody has had a chance of hearing the whole thing. It happened in PA with this album, so I decided to add it as a non-metal album for the time being, so we'd have none of that. I explained on the album page that the proper genre will be assigned later on, probably it will go to hard rock. Why not even progressive metal, we'll see
Posted 29 days ago in The Rasmus for Hard Rock/Alternate Metal or Gothic
The first two albums actually have some very scarce alternative metal moments.[TUBE]9d0ljw-VEVQ[/TUBE]But no. I haven't heard the later albums apart from the hits, but what I have heard said about the albums I don't believe they have any place here.My first rock gig was a Rasmus gig in 1997, I still think the first two albums were fantastic, and the fourth is a great pop record as well.